Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 27 2020, @12:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the fact-checking dept.

Twitter adds label to Trump's misleading tweets about mail-in ballots:

Twitter said Tuesday that it added a label to President Donald Trump's tweets for containing "potentially misleading information about voting processes," a rare move that shows the social media company is taking a tougher stance against misinformation.

It's the first time that Twitter has displayed a label on Trump's tweets.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-in-Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent," a claim that has been debunked by fact-checkers and news organizations. He continues his remarks in another tweet, stating that it will be a "Rigged election."

A label appears under both tweets that states "Get the facts about mail-in ballots." Clicking on the warning notice directs users to a page that states that fact-checkers say there isn't any evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. Trump also falsely states in the tweets that California will send mail-in ballots to "anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there" when only registered voters will receive ballots. States such as Oregon, Utah and Washington have long conducted elections by mail only, while states such as Nebraska allow any voter to request a ballot and vote by mail without having to provide a reason.

A Twitter spokeswoman said in a statement that the decision is in line with how the company approaches misinformation on its site, which includes adding warning notices and labels depending on the likelihood and severity of harm a tweet could cause.

Twitter's actions against Trump's tweets will also likely increase tensions between the company and conservative users, who allege that the social network suppresses their speech. Twitter has repeatedly denied those allegations. Earlier this month, Trump tweeted that the "Radical Left" is in control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google and said his administration is working on a solution.

In two tweets, Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 US presidential election.

"Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!," he tweeted.

Also at BBC News, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @01:40PM (22 children)

    Man, I don't care if anyone wants to take an extreme position. I just want them to support it without lying.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Redundant=2, Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Total=6
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:02PM (21 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:02PM (#999630)

    I just want them to support it without lying.

    Good luck with that. Is it lying if you don't get caught? That's the mentality, on both extremes of most issues. I think the media also amplifies the problem by only presenting the extremes- the middle is boring, who pays for advertising to read/watch/listen to boring?

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:21PM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:21PM (#999647) Journal
      They got caught this time.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:16PM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:16PM (#999746)

        So, that's the test: go with the side that gets caught less often?

        Penalties should be.... more extreme.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:04PM (1 child)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:04PM (#999769) Journal

          So, that's the test: go with the side that gets caught less often?

          Sides. And yes, I think that should be the test. After all, if you don't lie much, then you don't get caught much lying.

          I think it's educational to consider how these processes and organizations for trying to filter out bad information went wrong so fast.

          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:53PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday May 28 2020, @06:53PM (#1000238)

            So, that's the test: go with the side that gets caught less often?

            Sides. And yes, I think that should be the test. After all, if you don't lie much, then you don't get caught much lying.

            Sounds to me like you are just trusting the better, or luckier, liars. Even in today's hyper-connected, CCTV recorded, meta-data trailed society - liars and cheats get away with a lot, for a long time, often forever. Restaurant wait staff under-reporting tips is just a trivial example at the bottom extreme of the scale - as you move up the scale, the lies are worth more and the liars are better at covering themselves.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:23PM (16 children)

      Joe six-pack or Joe Biden I don't really care about. If they lie on $forum, I can call them a liar in reply right on the spot. The gatekeepers of communication and information I care a hell of a lot about though. Their lies can't be effectively disputed because they control the flow of information.

      Could you imagine the telecom companies deciding they're Trump fanbois and blocking communication they don't like, labeling opinions they don't like as factually false, and actively spreading information they know to be untrue because it advances their agenda? Cause that's precisely what social and mainstream media are doing.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Aegis on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:49PM (3 children)

        by Aegis (6714) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:49PM (#999669)
        • (Score: 2) by Captival on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:27PM (1 child)

          by Captival (6866) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:27PM (#999694)

          How dare they do the exact same thing [realclearpolitics.com] that we do!

          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:14PM

            by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:14PM (#999809)

            There's an important distinction to be made between Sinclair telling its journalists what to say, and those journalists jumping on a mailing list to brainstorm better ways to say what they themselves want to say.

            One of those is a near-monopolistic faceless corporation, representing a small number of wealthy bureaucrats, trying to impose its ideology on the masses. The other is a loose collection of flawed individual human beings, representing a large number of middle-income professionals, trying to impose its ideology on the rich and powerful.

            The distinction, in case you haven't figured it out yet, is that CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE. Sinclair, the corporate entity, does not deserve free speech protections.

            --
            If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:19PM

          Yes, except in much, much larger scope.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:33PM (10 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:33PM (#999697)

        Except yourself of course.

        The trouble here is that you're such a fecking narcissist you think you know everything. As usual you're in here obliquely supporting Trump. You know, the guy who never backs up his claims and who is statistically more likely to be telling a lie at any given time of day.

        Fascism is here, has been here for longer than Trump, but if you don't get it with the Orange Fuhrer then you're bloody stupid.

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:09PM (8 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:09PM (#999771) Journal

          As usual you're in here obliquely supporting Trump.

          The "if you're not rabidly against Trump, you're for him" argument. Sorry, you just didn't show enough zeal in that terrible argument to properly support it.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:50PM (7 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:50PM (#999790)

            Not my fault you suck at pattern recognition. Have the lard butt dump a copy of the database and I'll dig up your proof.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:28PM (1 child)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:28PM (#999868) Journal
              You just aren't showing the right level of zeal. You must secretly be for Trump. You Trump lover you.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:53PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:53PM (#999933)

                You would know ;) was Stormy telling the truth?

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:22PM (4 children)

              There's an API [soylentnews.org]. You're fully capable of doing that yourself. Oh, did I fuck your narrative up with facts? My bad.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:52AM (3 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:52AM (#1000023)

                Well if you'd made it easier to pull all comments for a user, even if in batches, I'd have bothered. Instead it looks like I'd have to write a script to get all story and journal IDs to pull your comments from, and due to the lack of details in the docs there is no guarantee it would work.

                Write a better API if you wanna weasel your way out with that.

                • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:30AM (2 children)

                  So not only are you full of shit but you suck so hard at coding that you can't even write a bash one-liner to iterate over all integers from 1 to whatever the CID of this comment turns out to be and dump them into a directory, one comment per file? Sad.

                  --
                  My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:54AM (1 child)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:54AM (#1000067)

                    Incorrect jackass, as usual you just highlight your sadly lacking skills of reading comprehension.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday May 29 2020, @01:21AM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Friday May 29 2020, @01:21AM (#1000349)

          You know, the guy who never backs up his claims and who is statistically more likely to be telling a lie at any given time of day.

          I dunno...I think you have to have an actual ability to understand true and false to be able to lie. Trump just says nonsense and wills it to be true.

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:44PM

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:44PM (#999706) Journal

        Agenda Please!

        They are working on their portfolio, not some stupid "agenda"

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..